Canada are competing with Japan, Korea Republic, Australia, Cameroon, Mexico, Brazil and France in the competition being held jointly in Japan and Korea. Canada are in group B with Japan, Brazil and Cameroon and play their group matches on 5/31, 6/2 and 6/4. Jeff is expected to rejoin the Timbers in time for their home game against Vancouver on June 13th.

Timberlog team sheet posted (for those of you new to this, a kind of poor substitute for a match-day program) – print it out, show your friends, use it, abuse it, it also makes great confetti for Timbers goal celebrations (although the Timberlog wouldn’t condone littering!)
The Timberlog will be out of town so will miss Saturday’s and Monday’s games, back just in time for Wednesday so if the Timberlog is quiet, that’s the reason dear reader.

Two games that the Timberlog really wanted to see: San Diego looking for revenge and a chance to drop more of those bombs right on top of the Timbers goal. Also another chance to take part in the "is it pronounced Chugger (as in "aye, e loves im is beer, es a right chugger an no mistake" or Sugar (as in: "That Mr Adair is a real sugar!"). Who knows?!

Then the Major League San Jose Earthquakes and the chance to see Landon Donovan, Dwayne DeRosario and chums, although the Timberlog was just as excited to see if they brought mascot Rikter the Cyberdog. I'd be interested to see what Timber Jim would do if old Rikter tried to take a leak on Jim's Log!!

Then there's the Open Cup. Don't get me started, don't even get me started! The Timberlog gave itself a migraine the other night trying to work out all the permutations. You know, 16 teams advance, 10 group winners, 6 wildcards, 5 D3 teams guaranteed places, teams beginning with the letter "P" get an extra point, teams named after animals get rated depending on the relative strengths of those beasts (Lions beating Wolves, Bulldogs beating Stallions, Wildcats beating Rooks!) etc, etc, etc.
All I could work out was that the Timbers better get the maximum 5 points out of the Utah game to stand any chance of even getting a wild card spot (probably 2 left for A-League teams and clubs like Pittsburgh and Charlotte will be up around that mark too.)

Of course what we really need is for Mr. Littman and Mr. Burpo to both have blinders, keep clean sheets and make the Sounders and the Blitzz share the points

The Timbers pick up their first A-League win on the road in a game which saw 7 goals, 2 penalties, a substitute goalkeeper, a sending off and an award winning episode of the "Mark Baena Show"

The Timbers scored first (again) and early when Darren Sawatzky put the ball past Hall in the 3rd minute after a pass from Mark Baena.
The Timbers made it 2 after 13', an O'Neill steal and pass put Mark Baena through and he beat the advancing Hall.

Then on 23' Matt Napoleon left the field after picking up an injury to his left hand and Daniel Moss, playing his first Timbers game as reserve keeper, came on to take his place.

In the 4th and final minute of injury time in the first half Maurer went down in the box and the Flash were awarded a penalty. Livett stepped up and scored to pull the game back to 1 - 2.

From the kick off Ayim was shown the red card for flattening Gavin Wilkinson (it was later announced that Gavin picked up a yellow too?) and the teams left the field with an ugly scene developing as players and Flash coachesargued with the officials.

On 50' the Timbers made it 1 - 3 as Baena put in the loose ball after a corner.
On 61' a Sancho handball gave the Flash their second penalty but Livett hit the right hand post.
Then on 66' Baena picked up his hat-trick after a pass from O'Neill to make the score 1 - 4.

The Flash hit back on 76' when Adair headed home from a corner and then in injury time at the end of the match Adair again headed home from close in to make the score 3 - 4.

It was too late for San Diego and the Timbers picked up the win and the bonus point and set up the return match at PGE Park next Saturday.

The Timbers announced this morning the official signing of former Yale captain Danny Moss to replace Matt Nelson as the Timbers reserve goalkeeper. Moss won a number of awards during his time at Yale including an All Ivy-League honorable mention, the Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Award and the Jack Marshall Award for team spirit, loyalty to his fellow players and dedication to the game.

Danny finished his 2000 season with a 0.98 goals against average and a career 1.06 goals against average.

“Danny is a great young talent and has the potential to become an outstanding professional,” said Jim Brazeau, Timbers’ goalkeeping coach.
“With Moss and Matt Napoleon, it gives us the best goalkeeping tandem in the league.”

The Timbers also announced that they had made the difficult decision to release Rob Baarts and Roger Gantz as well as Nelson.

A great start with goals by Michael O'Neill on 19' after a Mark Baena shot rebounded from the keeper and on 21' a long ball from Michael O'Neill found Darren Sawatzky and he buried the ball inside the left post.

El Paso hit back on 63' after Farias scored from a corner which was kicked off the line by Ochoa. The game started to get more physical as El Paso pressed for the equilizer but the Timbers defence held off. On 79' Matt Chulis was sent off for a strong but fair tackle on Griego, but the Timbers 10-men held off to the end of the game and importantly didn't crumble in the 3 minutes of injury time.

The second edition of the Timberlog Team Sheet for tomorrow night's game.
Maybe this will develop into something bigger over time but for now it's more like a little twig. Hopefully this is useful for someone out there. Last Sat it was useful for at least one person....The Timberlog got home with only enough time to print out the team sheet rather than the usual extensive score card...er....scratch that...anyway, I still missed the team announcements and spent most of the game trying in vain to read the microscopic print on the Nevada jerseys! I could have sworn the Aces had players called Geraldine Sultana and Rusty Maharaja!

The Timbers have announced the signing of Trinidad and Tobago U-23 and U of Connecticut F/MF Darin Lewis. Darin opted for the A-League over MLS because of the 3 senior international limit and so he could continue his Sociology degree at UConn.
Darin will begin training with the Timbers on Wednesday and will officially be added to the full roster once he receives his international work visa, which is expected in the next couple of weeks.

Season's end in Ireland found the 2 clubs with Timbers connections facing very different problems.
For Bohemians it was making room in the trophy cabinet and for Kilkenny it was facing next season in a lower division after being relegated. One look at the Eircom Premier League table showed the 2 clubs acting the bread in that particular football sandwich! Then, a week ago last Sunday, Bohemians won the double by beating Longford Town 1 - 0 in the FAI Cup Final.
[interesting note: It was this match-up which delayed Jeff Clarke's clearance from the Irish FA. He was briefly on Longford Town's books last year and they were worried (unnecessarily) that the Timbers and Bohemians might be involved in some shenanigans, loaning him back to play against his old side!]

Nevada Report finally finished![you know where it is...click on the match....there...on the right!]
Got some time on the Timberlog's flight today despite the subliminal but still annoying piped bird sounds on Frontier Airlines! Why?
Some good things about Saturday's game:

Greg Howes - Had a great debut, bigger and stronger than the TLog had expected.
Full Backs getting forward - Brent Sancho and Matt Chulis getting into scoring positions.
Kevin Legg - Leggy is back! Leaner, Meaner and ....er...Greener!?Those wing pairings - Benny and Chewy especially.
Matt Napoleon - Watches the ball spend 95% of the time in the Nevada half and still keeps his concentration!

Wilkinson has lyrics for chin music.Tribune article about Gavin "Bruiser" Wilkinson who looks like he did take up rugby rather than soccer! The Timberlog salutes mother Rose who was Gavin's first coach. Somebody give that woman a medal!

The Tribune also reported that the Timbers are set to increase their Trinidad & Tobago contingent by 100% by signing Darin Lewis.
The Timberlog should buckle down and finish that Timbers calypso its been working on!

His game consists of imagination and creativity, spontaneous runs, dribbling genius, fearlessness and an unpredictability that gives him game-breaking potential.

Darin, 25, is a native of Tunapuna, Trinidad and played for the University of Connecticut where he was the Offensive MVP in the 2000 College Cup. His goal in the 1999 semi-finals, a 30 yrd scorcher against Santa Clara, seems to have worn out his parents VCR.

The Timbers got a win, saw Greg Howes score on his debut, took the lap of honor, but ultimately will look on tonight's result, a 1 - 0 win, as a disappointment.
The only goal came after 25 minutes, Greg Howes heading home a cross from Scott Benedetti. The crowd of 5,329 then saw the Timbers unable to put away chance after chance with the Northern Nevada Aces closest chances coming in the game's final 5 minutes.
[match report to follow]

One comment heard at the Sounders game was the lack of, at the very least, a team sheet. Here is a pretty simple team sheet for Saturday's game v Northern Nevada Aces. The line-ups are a total guess at this point but at least might be a bit helpful so if you want to print it out and take a pen to the game go ahead. [Unfortunately the TLog will be out of town until Sat morning so I won't be able to update the line-ups if any major changes become apparent]

An amazing first night at PGE Park saw the Timbers run out 2-0 winners with goals from Mark Baena after a one-two with Darren Sawatzky on 24' and Brent Sancho heading home a corner at the far post after 37'.

The second half was probably a bit of an anti-climax but Seattle came close to scoring on 80' after Kieran Barton hit the post with a shot from the edge of the box with Matt Napoleon beaten.

The crowd also witnessed the sad sight of Seattle No. 9 Craig Tomlinson being carried off after a clash of heads with Jesus Ochoa. He was taken away by ambulance after the game with (presumably) concussion or a neck injury.

Media Watch - Timbers coach’s game plan: have fun, win.

The Tribune today has a nice piece about Bobby Howe, from his schooldays playing “jumpers-for-goalposts” games in school breaks (one day remind the Timberlog to tell you about the famous “Sock-Ball” that he used to play with!) to his days with the Hammers, watching the Beatles and the Dave Clarke Five, and then to the US and his time with Seattle and the USSF.

Tonight's Pre-Game Schedule5:30pm:
Gates open; live music at Widmer Brothers

A couple of notes:Jeff Clarke was present at the media session last night at PGE Park. The Timbers are waiting on clearance from the Irish FA (long story!) before he can play. Hopefully that comes through in time for the games this weekend.

Matt Nelson is on the roster, his omission from the official site roster is an oversight.

Kevin Legg will be able to start full training on Monday.

The players looked relaxed doing a small training session and playing with some local kids. They were then introduced to members of the media by Bobby (making sure people knew how to pronounce Baena and Tolstolutsky!) and telling everyone that Jimmy Conway would be translating for Michael O'Neill...and Bobby would be in turn translating Jimmy!

Keep an eye on the official roster, as official bios are being added. The first, quite rightly, is the star of recent print ads Brent Sancho. Hopefully pictures will be added soon so you can start stopping the players at the local supermarket (or pub!) and ask them..."Hey! Aren't you..."

Strange Supporters #1The Timberlog recently received a strange correspondence from someone claiming to represent a group of Timbers fans calling themselves The Baena Vista Social Club. The Timberlog put on its investigative journalist hat and ventured out to find out more. Read about it in the Miscellany.

Media Watch - Timbers find answer in goal:Matt Napoleon.A nice profile of Matt the "math and science" guy in the Tribune today. His wife Amy and 7-month old daughter, Gianni, arrive in time for Friday's game so welcome to the Napoleons.

Well, both the Utah and Nevada match reports are now all present and correct (click on the appropriate fixture on the right) A quick word about these radio-assisted match reports. Obviously they can only represent a subset of the whole game (as always is the case I suppose). Listening to games on the radio for the first time in a long while is frustrating and obviously cannot capture much that goes on which isn’t directly involved in the play (no great off-the-ball stuff for example). In other words it’s a bit of a “can’t see the wood (Timber?) for the trees” situation! Ha! Gratuitous arboreal pun hits the back of the net…One-Nil!

Lock Up Your Daughters!According to Darren Sawatzky a typical Timbers night out goes something like this:
A few rounds at Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub, maybe even dinner (glad to see they get thier priorities right!). Then a night of dancing at Embers on Northeast Broadway.

Lots of women there. Some of the guys have gotten phone numbers!

said Darren.
Add to that the fact that the Timbers will be staying in Reno tonight after their win and what can one say but...
Nevada, Lock Up Your Daughters!!!

The Timbers beat the Northern Nevada Aces 1 - 4 with 2 goals in the first half - Michael O'Neill from 18 yards on 38' and Mark Baena from 20 yards (assist O'Neill) after 43'. The first half would have seen more goals but for some good defensive blocking and saves by the Aces keeper Buchanan.
The second half saw 2 more goals, the first from Vadim Tolstolutsky on 50' and the fourth from O'Neill, set up by Sawatzky after Darren had his shot blocked.
The Aces got a consolation goal in the 71st minute with a nice overhead kick but the Timbers totally dominated the game and suffered none of the lapses in concentration that affected the first 2 games. Man of the match: Michael O'Neill for his 2 goals and an assist plus his performance in midfield. Brent Sancho also had a strong game at the back and both Keith Costigan and Neil Ryan got some useful crosses in.
[Oregonian match report][Timbers Official match report NB: no permalink][Reno Gazette-Journal match report]

A lot of pressure from the Timbers in the first half but no spark up front to turn that possession into goals. Utah getting 9 behind the ball at times have only troubled the Timbers defence a couple of times. A couple of good shots by Mark Baena early in the half and a yellow card for Brian Winters. Team changes from last week: Costigan, O'Neill, Chulis in, Ochoa out, Vadim suspended.

Second half saw Utah pushing forward more leaving some spaces for the Timbers to work in. Then on 57' Michael O'Neill scored for the Timbers after a pass from Baena. The Timbers then seemed to sit back and Utah pressed forward looking for the equilizer. Both teams made substitutions, Ochoa and Gantz coming on for McPeak and Wilkinson respectively. The Timbers were not controlling the game but seemed to have got the win when in the 3rd minute of extra-time Utah pulled level after a throw from Noleen was headed home by Ovalle. (1 - 1)

In the first period of overtime it looked like Utah were settling for the draw with Sawatzky and Baena getting back into the game after a very quiet second half. Then in the 116th minute a cross by Afash was headed home past Matt Napoleon to give Utah the win.

The Timberlog is back in town so here is an update of information gleaned from this weeks papers.

The Tribune reported that the subs at El Paso were Roger Gantz, Keith Costigan, Neil Ryan, Rob Baarts and Adam Pearce. Kevin Legg also made the trip but was injured with a hamstring pull (which suggests that the pin in his foot has been removed and he has been training). Evidently Adam Pearce is not expected to stay with the team and Matt Nelson was being given a chance in practice this week to see if he was going to get the backup keepers position. (Note: Nelson is no longer listed in the roster on the Timbers official site). Daniel Moss may come back from Yale if his exams/studies are over.

Vadim misses the Utah game because of suspension (hopefully that means he will be eligible for the home opener though) and evidently Vadim's first yellow was for arguing with the referee and throwing the ball towards the linesman.

Freddy Kummernes (Norwegian - in the process of applying for a Green Card) has been training this week trying to regain fitness before he can be considered for the team.

Bobby Howe remarked that he was going for a win in Utah and then would probably play some reserves against N. Nevada the next day (depending on the previous day's result).

Timbers sign O'Neill and Chulis.The Timbers announced today that they have signed Michael O'Neill and Matt Chulis. Chulis is a 23 year old defender who has played for the Chicago Fire, the Columbus Crew and also the US (U-23) Olympic team. Both have been cleared to play in the Timbers Open Cup games this weekend.

Brian Kelly waived by LA Galaxy.The Timberlog wonders if, apart from scoring the Timbers first goal, Brian impressed enough to be considered for a place on the Timbers roster? (that's if the Timbers have any more money stashed under the bed!)

Media Watch - A couple of Timbers mentions in the Willamette Week today.The first is in Zach Dundas' column which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. He ends a piece about the end of the Blazers season with this:

The season of the overpaid, overvocal and underachieving is over.

and later...

Many of the Timbers and Fire players work other jobs in the off-season to subsidize summers of sweaty toil at the fringe of sports' megawatt spotlight. Why? We can only guess that maybe they love the games they play. Might be interesting to watch, no?

Then in the same issue someone else in the Murmurs section writes this:

One team. Several spleens.* They say money can't buy love or happiness, but they don't really say much about filthy lucre's relationship to victory on the soccer field. The Portland Timbers, Portland Family Entertainment's new pro futbol franchise, found out last weekend that cash doesn't necessarily equal success, losing in overtime to the El Paso Patriots--a team with roughly half the Timbers' payroll--in their inaugural A-League match.

An interesting piece of information picked up from the El Paso broadcast (well, at least to the Timberlog) was the fact that Matt Napoleon is a student of Chemical Engineering. As any student of that fine art (OK by now you guess that the Timberlog must have some connection with it!) knows...the Mass Balance is King!

The Timberlog would therefore like to present, in honor of Matt...

The Timberlog Goalkeeping Mass Balance.

where...

because we want all those balls that enter the area to leave and then at the end of the game that old goal accumulation rate will be a big...

Bad News for Baltimore, Good News for Portland.Baltimore Blast lost game 3 of their NPSL play-off semi-final last night to Philadelphia which means that Jeff Clarke will be joining the Timbers this week. Also due in at the end of the week is former Northern Ireland International Michael O'Neill.

Greg Howes will be playing in the NPSL finals with Milwaukee at least until May 11th (game 3 of a best of 5). Game 4 (if required) will be played on May 12th and the date of a possible game 5 has yet to be determined.